Today marks the first day of NaNoWriMo! To start ourselves off, let’s ask ourselves one important question: Why are we doing this? Why would we want to put ourselves through writing an entire novel in only 30 days when it takes some people years to complete a first draft? Why do we write at all?

For me, this question is easy to answer. There are two reasons why I write: The first reason is because I want to make a name for myself. I never liked my class growing up. Elementary school was fine, we were all young and naive. Middle school got tougher, as so did the kids. When I had gotten into high school I had finally had enough with them.

I hated high school, to put it bluntly. I hated my teachers (I only liked three of them), hated my classmates, my best friend turned against me, and I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. It got to the point where my body said, “I don’t want to go to school anymore, so I’m not going to!” I sure gave my parents a run for their money. I wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning and refused to go to school. I didn’t even know what was going on with me.

Just like my family and I, my best friend had no idea what was going on with me, either. She asked and when I told her, “I don’t know,” she thought I was lying to her. This is what ended up breaking our friendship. She thought (after being friends since third grade, may I add), I didn’t trust her and such. When I stopped going to school, she spread rumors that I was dead and did many more “mature” things like that.

She knew I liked to write and that I wanted to an author. She liked to write as well (and she was a good writer), but being a published author was never her dream. When I decided to write a novel, she decided she was going to do the exact same thing. She never thought I was going to make it in the writing world. I’m no expert in writing, but I did a lot more research than her. When it came to being an “expert” in writing, I was the expert. But she wanted to beat me at my own game. And if you want to get technical, she did. She self-published a book. However, she never edited it and never advertised it as she didn’t know how to. She thought that being published was “easy.” She thought she would end up rich and famous from this one book that no one has heard of. She never really understood what it means to be a writer and she probably never will understand.

As much as I’m not happy with her, I have to thank her. It’s because of her that I want to write. I need to show her that I can in fact do something if I put my mind to it. I can follow my dreams. I want to make a name for myself and when people I graduated with see my book on the shelves at Barnes & Noble, they’ll think: “She got somewhere in life.”

I may have fallen off the face of the earth to them, but I did not “die.” I felt as though I was being slowed down as I already knew what I wanted to do. I took charge of my own life and I’m going to make something out of it.

Here’s the second reason I write: I love it. I love creating something out of nothing. I love having fictional characters to talk and argue with inside my head. I love creating brand new worlds and adventures. But it’s too much to keep all to myself. I want to share these things with the world and I’m hoping they’ll enjoy it just as much as I do.

I love the hard work. I love the research. I love the imagination and the creativity. It’s the best feeling in the world to create something and be proud of yourself for what you had just accomplished. No, I am not a published author. Yes, I have finished manuscripts, but no, they are not edited. It takes a long of time, hard work, and determination, to write and edit an entire novel. I have stories published throughout the internet on websites, but nothing is “self-published;” especially for money (I’m hoping soon, though).

My reason for doing NaNoWriMo is to kick myself into gear. I want to get myself into a writing habit. I want to write a certain amount every single day. I want to find the time to write every day and not stress over school or work. I want to do something I love. Something I’m proud of. Something I’m good at. And that’s all I could ask for.

So grab a snack and some caffeine, sit at your desk, and pray that you get carpel tunnel. Because then you’ll know that you’re doing it right. You’ll know that you’re getting something productive done. No pain, no gain. Right?

Word Count: 1,717

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